Gonzo Imperial Porter | Flying Dog Brewery

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Pours an oily pitch black with a thin tan head. Smell is of roasted grain and molasses. Taste is of coffee, black liquorice, and a medium malt base. A touch sour in the finish. A hint of earthy hops in the finish as well. Medium bitterness from the hops. Mouthfeel is good, nice low carbonation. Pretty drinkable, though I think a 12oz bottle is enough for one sitting. Tastes similar to a Russian Imperial Stout, though a bit dryer IMO. A good beer, I would buy again.

deep, rich black in appearance with a nice tan head and a surprising lack of lacing.
Deep, ripe fruits in the nose. chocolate, roasty and inviting in the nose.
taste is a kiss of goodness.Big on the feel, roastiness and also bitter as it fades behind the palate.
I like this beer. Seems pretty "stout" for a porter, but since its Gonzo, it fits the bill.

No sunlight in the body, as Hunter would have wanted it... dirty brown head dissolves to a ring of grey bubbles in a Maudite snifter--a devilish way to begin Advent! Rich, thick fragrant bouquet of sweet molasses, chocolate and pleasant hops--a full-bodied aroma... heavy body that drapes around the tongue like a pallor, or a shroud--thick yet smooth--warming and immense in presence... the alcohol makes itself aware late with a linger... rich, yeasty taste with hints of chocolate, peat and bread--not smoky, per se, but thick with something dark... having saved this for the last of the FD sampler, I am bowled over by this beer's "drinkability" (Miller Lite is harsher than the 9.2% ABV this beer sports)and its enjoyable complexity. It ALMOST makes me want to seek out Thomspon's writings to find out what the big fuss was about....

Pours jet black with a two finger tan color head. The head shrinks to the ring of the glass and leaves some lacing. Towards the end of the glass, it tapers to just a small ring.

The smell of toasted and sweet malts dominate. A coffee/caramel aroma is also present. Some phenols from the alcohol are present, but not overbearing.

The taste is very similar to the smell. A lot of chocolaty and toasted malt flavor dominates throughout. The alcohol gives a nice warming senation in the back of the throat as you swallow. Even though the label says 80 plus IBUs, I get just the slightest earthy, dry flavor from them at the end and that quickly disappears to the alcohol.

In my opinion, the only spot this beer is lacking in is the mouthfeel. I expected it to be much heavier than it is. The bottle says it is an Imperial Stout and I like my Imperial Stouts to almost suffocate you. This one doesn't do that.

2008. 9.2% abv. I want to review this beer before only the lower abv version is available. It seems this beer is going down a bit in strength, which I'm not overtly opposed to but I fear any change to this wonderful porter. It's thick and chewy almost like a great stout. It's in a slightly easier categories than the stouts, and its scores reflect this to a modest extent. The beer pours deep and dark with slight highlights on the edges and a mocha head. The smell is tiny bit weak. (Or maybe DIPAs have utterly spoiled me) There are some notes of roasted malt and caramel. The flavor is slightly sweet and ashy. It's a very good caramel wood ash flavor, which doesn't sound great but comes off fairly dry for such a big porter. It has been one of my favorite craft beers for a long time. I love how well Flying Dog got such a big strong beer distributed so widely. The hop bite in the finish is bitter and dry. This beer has a very round flavor and full mouthfeel that compliments the malt notes nearly perfectly. Also, the abv is very well hidden for a big porter. This beer has made me seek out other big porters, like Sinebrychoff, Zywiec and Carnegie. It's a great introduction to big, tasty porters for American beer fans. Without this beer, I would not have readily bought these random-sounding porters from Finland, Poland and Sweden. So much attention is paid to big stouts, while big porters languish in relative obscurity. It's fairly confusing.

Mom is an aspiring beer geek who has been drinking craft beers mainly over the last 15 years, after a lifetime of macro lagers. She mainly drinks whatever decent porter is on sale, but likes stouts, and when introduced to some Belgians recently, seems to like them as well. She's not a hophead and doesn't like bitterness generally. She doesn't experiment much when I'm not around, but she is open to it. When asked what she thinks about various ales, she often pulls common descriptors off the top of her head. I think she is a bit of a natural, and could make a great reviewer.

Tiny highlights on super dark beer, modest mocha head, some retention and good lacing. Mom wanted to give it a 5, but I dialed back to 4.5, but agreed with her when she said "doesn't it look awesome."

Lightly fruity and roasty with a hint of sweetness. After initial sniff it was very hard to find, hence the low score. It was nice while it lasted. Later sweet and super mild. Mom said the sweetness was "all I get."

Poured a deep black color with a small brown head that dissapated quickly. Aroma of chocolate, black coffee, and roasted malts. The taste was a lot of roasted malts with chocolate hints. The bitter taste lingered in the back of my mouth for a while, you get a little of the alcohol flavor at the end. It was very pleasant. Much better than expected.

Pours a dark black color, almost completely opaque with a 1 finger tan head that has decent retention.

Smells of roasted malt and a nice floral honey like scent.

Taste has a very nutty character with hints of bitter chocolate and toffee. Leaves a slight coffee-like aftertaste.

Mouthfeel is very rich and smooth.

Slight warming alcohol presence in the background that does not dominate the brew. Right in in the middle of not being too bitter or too sweet. Overall highly drinkable and something I would not mind having again.

A: Pours an oil-like, black body with a dark brown head with ok retention and lacing. Head starts to dissipate towards the end of the beer.

S: A slightly, roasted smell with some roasted meat aftertaste.

T: A robust, roasted barley taste with a slight, coffee aftertaste that was pretty good overall.

M: A pretty silky beer with a slight, overcarbonated feeling.

D: A nice mouthfeel and taste combination. Did a pretty good job of covering the alcohol burn from the palette, as I was only able to feel it after I had already taken a sip. While I was expecting a little more thickness to it, it was still a pretty good feeling beer overall.

This is my first Baltic porter and as such I wasn't sure what to expect.

Looks good and black with a nice creamy head. Smells hoppy as hell, unlike any porter I have ever had before. Nice and citrusy and floral scents dominate. Taste matches the smell as this reminds me more of an ipa than the porters I am used to. Mouth is thin and carbonated with quote a zing to it. I would session with this in a second.

I've been longing to try something from Flying Dog for quite some time now. Found this one in a pub called Pitcher's in Karlstad, Sweden.

Looks nice! Flying Dog's bottles are really cool and the beer pours a black color with a large beige foam that settles to a thin lid of foam after a while.

Smells nice of those typical American hops and some hardly roasted malts (but not in that burnt way that some american stouts smell, some vanilla fudge and slight hints of smoke going on in there and some milk-chocolate can be found too.

Tastes really good of those earlier mentioned hardly roasted malts, vanilla fudge, some light coffee notes that reminds me of Zoega's Blue Java and finally a strong background of American hops. It's a really filling beer that is a good sipper.

Reviewed on 8/15/08. Bottle, 2007. Pours black with a pretty thick dark tan head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of roast, rich sweet malt, chocolate, and alcohol. Flavor of rich sweet malt, slight roasted malt, dark fruits, and slight citrusy hops. Quite sweet. Very good beer! I wonder if it would be better fresh where you can really get a nice interplay between the sweet malt and citrusy hops? Either way, this is a winner.
8/4/8/4/15 (3.9/5)

I really enjoyed this beer. I'm not a big porter drinker, but I thought this one was very good.

Nutty, sweet, and a little smokey. Lacking the chalky mouthfeel that I get from a lot of porters. Surprisingly light mouthfeel which helps the drinkability out quite a bit. I could drink several of these and be quite happy.

Pours a syrupy black, as you would expect, and has little head and no lacing.

7 oz. bottle poured into a tulip glass. It's a dark brown color that borders on black and lets no light through that I can see. Creamy looking tan head rises fast and settle to a fingers worth leaving a bit of lacing on its way down.

A deep inhalation of the vapors into the nose reveals the aroma of bitter chocolate, roasted malt and enough alcohol to tickle the nose hairs. Swirling and smelling again turns up some ripe dark fruit and a hint of hop spice. The taste is alive with all of these flavors, as the biter chocolate hits you first and turns into a alcohol infused fruitcake, then goes dry and bitter for the finish.

Not huge in body, but the mouthfeel is smooth and creamy. All in all pretty good but a little to hot with alcohol right now. I will save the other Gonzo bottle from this sampler for a while before trying it again.

A= This ale poured a very dark blackish brown with ruby highlights around the edges. With an aggressive pour, the medium tan colored head started at a towering 2.5" and slowly dropped to a thin cap. Huge sticky sheets of lacing down my glass.

S= At the initial pour, I swear this thing smelled a bit like an English ESB - maybe they used the Fuller's yeast strain? After the head settled, I found very thin, weak aromas of sweet malts, carob, and roasted grains. Some minor alcohol on the nose as well.

T= Flavors were dominated by a sharp bite of roasted grains, followed by a dance of dark malt sweetness and solvent alcohol. A nice bit of earthy hop flavor crept in throughout the middle and finish as well.

MF= Slightly heavy side of medium body with a crisp carbonation and mouth feel.

D= This beer just couldn't find its niche for me. Its a porter that tastes a bit like an Imperial Stout but with a dry stout's roastiness and English ESB yeast/hop notes. It was by no means bad, it just seemed like a tangled mess of styles that confused my palate. The RIS flavors made me think the beer was too thin, but being a porter the relative thinness of the body was actually fine. I'm torn to say the least...

Pours a solid dark brown with the faintest of ruby on the outer edges. Large fluffy mocha head leaves lace all over. Aroma: Holy hops, I could smell them in the pour. Pine and grapefruit lathered in chocolate and roast. Sounds bad, but smells good. Taste is roasty chocolaty even little bit of ash, especially in the finish/aftertaste. The hops are there, but not as up front as the aroma would lead you to believe, surprisingly balanced for 85 Ibu's Mouthfeel is oily and creamy, Body is a little thin, carbonation is light but appropriate. Great Baltic Porter, definitely one of the better brews I've had from Flying Dog.

Okay, one more shot with Flying Dog. This is actually really good. Nearly black pour with brown edges, short tan head. Coffee and chocolate in the aroma mixed with smoke and burning rubber. Huge taste. Lots of coffee and chococlate again, but mixed with a generous amount of hops. The bitterness of the hops, coffee, and crystal malt is excellent, but somehow kept balanced with a sweet back. Tasty.